Living the Dream
by mydoctortennant
Summary: After 'She Did', Ray and Neela are living the dream they have shared for the last two years.
1. Chapter 1

**A continuation sequel to She Did. It's exam time and both me and my Beta have exams so if I don't update much for a while that's why, only 5 left now though so hopefully I'll be back next week ******

"Neela we're gunna be late!" Ray yelled as he gathered up their belongings and grabbed the keys for the door. They were going to be taking the El again, Neela didn't trust his van as ever, and didn't fancy riding in something that smelt as dodgy as it did. No matter how much she told him to let it go and get a car, he never did.

"When are we not?" She retorted as she brought a hairbrush casually through her hair, untangling the last of the knots.

"That's not really my point," he replied trying to usher her quickly out of the door. "My point is Crenshaw will fire your ass if you're late again, and even though Weaver's not exactly here anymore, Kovac isn't as lenient as he used to be. The guy might like me, but I'm his wife's best friend's boyfriend, he doesn't have to favour me at all."

"And he doesn't, but you're a good doctor, he's hardly going to fire you. And if Crenshaw wants to fire me, he has to go through Dubenko," Neela smiled sweetly. Ray knew she could play Dubenko as the fool, he liked her a lot and when he had heard about her and the 'ER rift-raft' he had warned him, 'If you hurt her, you'll have me to answer to.' But that was the last thing Ray intended on doing, hurting the love of his pathetic excuse for a life. "Come on, he's not gunna strip you of your yet-to–be-achieved Chief Resident position."

"You know about that, huh?" He hadn't said anything about it yet** make sense? **; he hadn't wanted to jinx it. But it seemed the world knew, well Morris knew, so of course the world and it's dog knew. They had known before Ray himself had, and he had only found out at the end of his shift the previous day.

"Morris knows about it, how long did you expect it to stay within the ER?" she threw back at him as they exited the apartment block building, heading towards the nearest El station.

They caught their train just as they got onto the platform, it was about to leave and it would had been just their luck had it left. But luckily somebody, in the form of Pratt, saw them coming. Placing his hand in front of the door to stop it closing thus making it unable to leave.

"Alright?" He asked as they bundled in to the already over crowded carriage. "Hey Ray, congratulations man, you deserve it."

"I haven't gotten to position yet," Ray protested as they were jerked about as the train started to pull away.

"Well you're biggest competition would have been Abby, but she doesn't want it, so that just rules out anybody coming close to your standard. Apart from her," he said indicating Neela. "But she abandoned us for the OR. Not driving you mad yet calling you an ER cretin?"

"As much as Crenshaw might hate you lot and call me their ER step-child, I'm not one of them. I like you lot," she defended herself feebly being through towards a random stranger, before apologising profusely and clinging on for dear life to Ray's hand. "But I could be forced to change my mind." She said scowling at the now laughing Greg and Ray.

"Awwah and I thought you loved me," Ray fake cried in a mock hurt. His demeanour somewhat changing as she playfully hit him across the stomach with the back of her hand and he smiled _that_ smile.

"Oh this is our stop!" Neela said in barely a whisper, as if talking to herself, which more than likely she was. The three of them bundled out onto the platform, with many others, and made their way down into the ER.

"I'll see you later I'm sure," Neela smiled, quickly leaning up and in to Ray capturing a quick kiss before Morris yelled at them to get a room.

Neela walked off towards the elevators saying good bye to Ray once more as he went to enter the lounge with Pratt. Bidding them both farewell and a good shift. She knew she'd only see them later anyway.

Pressing the button of the lift, Intern Tony Gates made his way out of Trauma One wheeling out a Motorbike versus Snowplough victim, ready for him to be taken up to the OR.

"How've you been, Mayday?" He asked waiting for the same shaft.

"Better thanks, my life's great, thanks for asking." She just turned away and made her way for the stairs, he just didn't get it. He hadn't gotten it at Abby's wedding, even when the rest of the ER had, it was a pretty obvious thing, and he just never left her alone. As she rounded the corner of the stairwell the doors to the OR opened and Gates entered with the crash victim. He would beat her up there, but if she was lucky he'd be out of sight so she could slip into the surgical lounge.

xxx

"What've you got for me?" Neela asked all business as she entered Exam Three. It wouldn't normally surprise her to see Ray, nor Gates, had they been separate, but they were both stood at the bed of a patient, one Samantha Mayer, apparently agreeing on a case for once in their lives.

"Samantha here has managed to chip off a piece of the bone in her thumb, which has the ligament attached to it still, so we need you to see if she needs to have surgery to either reattach the bone and letting the ligament heal, or taking the bone out and reattaching the ligament," Ray said semi-professionally before turning to Neela and smiling at her for his 'efforts'.

"I would say the best bet would be to take out the bone and reattach the ligament. It would take a few weeks to heal properly, but you should get full use of your hand in about four weeks," Neela smiled at the young girl seated on the bed in front of her.

After a closer look, the bruising on Samantha's hand didn't look half as bad as Neela had thought and after a discussion on how it was done, Mountain Boarding Competition for the state, her gym teacher had told her to run it under the tap and it would be fine. So much for that. _PE teachers are crap. _Neela decided before signing Samantha's chart and agreeing to take her up for minor surgery.

Tony had just stood back in the entire ordeal, only talking when spoken to, and engaging Samantha in a chat about how she had had the accident, he actually sounded interesting in the Mountain Boarding. He was almost a different Tony, almost. Ray joined Neela as she left to go to her next consult, another one of Ray's patients with a badly broken leg, which was probably in need or surgery to realign the shattered bone.

"That was so civil, should I be scared?" Neela asked her voice completely dead pan.

"You're telling me, I've not said anything. Maybe he's trying to get in somebody's pants again," Ray said with a smirk of a smile on his face.

"Well too bad, because these pants belong to somebody else." Neela was looking up at Ray, and him down at her, and quickly kissed her before opening the curtain to Matthew Maynard. A nineteen-year-old who had somehow managed to get his leg pinned between his motorbike and the floor. Not only was he sporting a few burns from the exhaust pipe but also the bike had fallen on his leg with such force that it had broken his leg bone in roughly three places. The middle pieces had moved and would need surgical attention to get them realigned before his leg could be plastered and he could be sent home.

"What is it with you and surgical cases today? You shot-gunning them all yourself?"

"If I knew what that meant I'd know whether to nod or not." _Weird British terminology._

"Bagsying? Calling them as yours before anybody else can get them, and therefore they are yours to do…" Ray breathed in and his gazed flicked up to the ceiling as he put his hands in his pockets casually.

"Damn, foiled my plan," he paused for a second before looking at her through partially closed eyes. "Is it working?"

"Like a charm," Neela smiled before pressing the call button for the elevator for the fifth time that day. "You know, for a surgical resident, I spend way too much time in the ER." She laughed before the doors opened and she bid farewell to Ray for the fifth time that day, each time with a soft kiss and a promise of seeing him sooner rather than later, which she always did. "And remember to chat to Luka about your Chief Resident presentation. Just don't do a Morris!" She laughed at the memory of Susan complaining about him after his hour and a bit of droning on, Morris was the only candidate, had Pratt applied they would have chosen him without a doubt or delay.

"Yes, Mom," Ray joked as the lift shut. He turned to see Gates standing in the Exam Room doorway, if looks could kill, a certain R3 would not be standing or breathing right now.

xxx

"So am I calling you Mrs. Kovac or Ms. Lockhart?" Ray asked seriously standing behind admit, flicking through the charts on the desktop to see if there was anything remotely interesting that wasn't a sprain, a cough or a quibble.

"Just Abby's fine Ray, and I'm no Ms. or Mrs. I'm a Dr." She smiled triumphantly at him before picking up the chart Ray had been reaching for.

"That Lockhart was the only decent chart on there," he protested before turning back to charts to inspect them once again.

"Well too late, _Barnett._ How's Neela anyway? I've not seen her down here in thirty minutes, must be a record!"

"Funny! Unlike Gates I can spend more than an hour away from her, believe it or not."

"I'll believe that when I see it!"

"Try living with her when she has a bath," Ray tilted his head knowingly. He knew perfectly well Abby had lived with Neela, so knew that she would understand what he meant.

"Point taken. Surprised you don't knock the door down and join her."

"Oh believe me I've been tempted," he laughed, somewhat nervously, before it turned into a pure smile, happiness was a good look for him. After a few years of being second best he was finally out in front, he had finally gotten what he had wanted for the last two years and Abby couldn't be happier for them.

"I'm glad my shocker of a wedding brought you together, finally!" She turned away from him, her best friend's boyfriend, and the other person in her life she would define as her best friend. The one man she knew would make her eternally happy. If Gates left them alone. He always was an inconsiderate asshole, now he was just a bad, if not worse because he couldn't get 'Mayday's' attention for more than thirty seconds.

Abby smiled to herself, as it seemed everything in her life was perfect, Luka had returned from Croatia and hadn't gone anywhere without her and Joe since. Joe had a great bill of health, since the little scare a few months ago when Abby had fretted no end for a day. He had had nothing since. Her best friends had finally sorted themselves out and were happily together, even with Gates hanging around Neela still, they just chose to ignore him and it worked for them. So it would work for her too.

**Reviews are very much loved ******


	2. The Dream Lives On

**Sorry again for the delay. As I said in Slip, Fall, Caught, my beta's been having comp trouble and I hate posting without her looking through it! Next chapter this story is turning into a slight Lost x-over. In the way that Charlie and Claire are coming into it for a few chapters. All shall be explained next chapter!**

The end of his shift couldn't have come any slower, having constantly seen Ray and Neela everywhere he went. Yet nobody seemed to care, nobody liked him and nobody wanted to know. He had left Meg for her and this is what he got? He hadn't treated her how he should have and now he was paying the price. He had lost her to Barnett and there was no way he was ever getting her back.

Handing his charts off to Hope he quickly made for the door. Another reason not to stay there for long, Morris and Hope were on the same shift. Never good when you're not in a good mood.

"Sarah?" he called out as he entered their small but conventional apartment. Walking past the spiral staircase to his room he spotted Sarah through her door and headed over to her. "Hey Sarah?" he called out again but she was listening to her music. He approached her bed and placed his hand on her shoulder. She jumped and ripped her headphones out of her ears with a scream.

"God, Tony! What are you doing?" she said hand on her chest trying to calm her heart down.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you; I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"If it's about the gas bill, I left the cheque for to sign so I can go and pay it," she said matter-of-factly sitting up on her bed as he sat down beside her.

"No that's not it, how would you like to go live in Wisconsin?" he had asked her before, he knew that, but this time he meant he would go with her. She'd still live with him but he's transfer there; anything to get away.

"We've been through this before, Tony. I want to stay here. I want to stay with you."

"But you'd still be with me, I'll go with you. We can start again," he smiled at his 'daughter' and tried to make his point.

"Is this because of Neela?" This kid was smarter than he gave her credit for. "I mean yeah, I'll go if you come, but this is about Neela isn't it, you can't bear that she left you for him? I have to say Tony I love you, but he is pretty hot." She smiled jokingly and pushed his shoulder. "I'm kidding," she said once she saw his unimpressed face, the complete opposite of her own.

"So we're going?" he asked her, as if it wasn't his choice.

"If you come too," Sarah smiled and reassuringly took his hand in hers. She had really wished that what her Mom had said had been real. She wanted Tony to be her Dad. He had always been there for her; now more than ever.

Gates smiled at her and pulled her into his arms for a hug. She was a great kid; she did everything in her power to make his life easy. She always did her homework and her chores, she even paid the bills. She was a good kid and it upset him that she wasn't his.

xxx

"Ray, we got either last night's pizza or the night-before-that's Thai." Neela brought her head out of the fridge, shut it and the light source cracked off.

"We need to go shopping; we can't live off takeaway forever!" Ray shouted from the bathroom where he had just been showering quickly before they ate.

"You think I don't know that, do you know how much weight I lost when I left here and started eating healthily?" She retorted approaching the bathroom door and joining him in their, but before he noticed he started to shout his reply.

"You know that there was more to-" He quietened his voice when he saw her, "-it than that." Neela smiled a sad smile on her face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have," he finished reaching out his free hand and placing it on her arm, rubbing it slightly in an attempt to sooth her.

"No, it's alright, you're right. You always are." She grabbed his hand and pushed him towards his room, "Clothes, then grocery shopping!" He slipped threw his door, and not in the elegant sense, ending up on his backside with a thud.

"Thanks, Neela. Really," he said in a sarcastic laugh, picking himself off of the floor and pulling whatever came to his hand out of his wardrobe. It just so happened to be _that _t-shirt that he hadn't dared lay his hands on since she threw it back in his face when she left. None of that mattered anymore but he knew that if he wore it, it would mean a lot more to her than she would let on. It was her favourite and she still stole it to sleep in, but now not-so-secretly.

"Okay let's go," he announced as he left the bedroom and headed for the door, already with his socks and shoes on. He caught Neela with her head in the cupboard. "You know staring at the big open spaces isn't going to make the food appear, we have to go out and buy it, _then_ put it there ourselves."

"Ha ha- very funny. I was looking to see what we do have so we don't buy any more," she offered shutting the door and grabbing her coat from the peg as she made her way to the door. "But we don't have anything, not even milk and eggs so we can't whip up some milky eggs or whatever those adverts you go on about do." He smiled as he lead her into the street and across to the other side of the road before properly taking a hold of her hand, interlacing his fingers with hers, not wanting to ever let her go. Every time he did, she'd fallen further away from him and he wasn't going to let that happen again.

"You know you don't have to hold on so tight, right?" she commented as the tips of her fingers were no longer in considerable heat.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." He quickly loosened his grasp but didn't let go completely. "I'm just so scared that if I let you go you'll run away from me again."

Neela shot him a glance, it must have been one that said something like '_You think I'm that shallow?_' because he quickly smiled at her and corrected himself. "I know you're not, but in these last three years whenever we've gotten close you've ran and now, just as I'm finally truly happy, I don't want that to happen again."

"I'm sorry I treated you like a yo-yo Ray, I really am, but I'm knotted now, to continue the metaphor. I'm in your control; I'm tied to your hand." She looked down at their intertwined finger and let out a small gasp of a giggle. "Or rather, I'm eternity clamped to it with your fingers." She smiled up at him as they reached the store and entered, grabbing a cart, not a basket, and began to shop.

-x-x-x-

"That's why I never go shopping!" Neela declared as she stacked the last of the supplies they had fished out $100 for. "Putting it all away!"

"Well if we buy it when we need it, then we only have to put away three things at a time!" he tried to reason. He knew it was mainly his fault, he barely shopped; he just called into the Jumbomart on his way home from a shift getting whatever it was he wanted. He had rarely kept the cupboard stocked; he had no need to.

"You do that!" she said running into the bathroom, she had needed to pee half-way home and now she was going to take advantage of the chance to go. "That feels better," she muttered as she exited.

"You should really learn to go before we leave, you know," Ray said from his new position on the couch.

"Thanks for that, Ray. I shall treasure that piece of advice forever!" she muttered sarcastically, slumping onto the couch next to him and immediately resting her head on his shoulder. He looked sideways down at her before smiling to himself and placing his head on top of hers.

"You're on early as well tomorrow, aren't you?" he asked, checking the time: 8:30. If she was they'd want to be hitting the sack soon, but he gained no reply; she was out like a light on his shoulder. "That would decide it then." Carefully he manoeuvred, picking her up and taking her to their room. _Their_ room still sounded odd. It had always been _their _apartment, but room? It was foreign to the tongue.

**Please Review. Reviews are love!**


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